2 Chronicles 7

The Voice

7 As Solomon finished his prayer, fire descended from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the other sacrifices. At that moment, the glory of the Eternal filled the house.

The presence of God comes down and rests above the seat of mercy on the covenant chest with the winged guardians as His footstool.

²The Eternal’s glory filled the temple so overwhelmingly that the priests could not enter. ³When all the Israelites saw the fire and the Eternal’s glory, they fell prostrate before the temple, worshiping and praising the Eternal One.

Israelites: He is good! His loyal love lasts forever!

^4-5Having prayed and worshiped God, the king and all the people made sacrifices to the Eternal and dedicated the temple. King Solomon offered 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep.

This is an enormous offering that signifies the importance of the occasion.

⁶All of Israel stood, and the priests and the Levites played their instruments to the Eternal One while other priests standing across from them played trumpets. (King David had made these instruments and used them to praise the Eternal, whose love endures forever.) ⁷Solomon consecrated the middle of the court in front of the Eternal’s temple by giving burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings. The bronze altar was not large enough to hold the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat.

⁸Solomon and all of Israel (from the border with Hamath in Aram to the river of Egypt) feasted for seven days, celebrating the temple dedication and Succoth, the Festival of Booths. ⁹On the eighth day, after the dedication of the altar and the feasting had concluded, the people held a solemn assembly. ¹⁰On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, Solomon sent the people home, rejoicing over the goodness that the Eternal had shown to David, Solomon, and His people Israel.

¹¹In this way Solomon successfully finished the Eternal’s house and the house of the king so that everything Solomon had in his heart to do for the divine and royal residences he accomplished. ¹²The Eternal appeared to Solomon one night.

True God: As promised, I have chosen this temple as the place where My name will dwell and where I will receive sacrifices and prayer. I heard your prayer, and I will honor it.

¹³If I close up the heavens and their rain and send any of the disasters you described—drought, locusts, pestilence—to ravish the land and people; ¹⁴and My people (who are known by My name) humbly pray, follow My commandments, and abandon any actions or thoughts that might lead to further sinning, then I shall hear their prayers from My house in heaven, I shall forgive their sins, and I shall save their land from the disasters. ¹⁵Now I will witness with My eyes and hear with My ears the prayers offered in this temple ¹⁶because I have chosen and consecrated this temple as the eternal resting place for My reputation, My eyes, and My heart.

¹⁷If you follow My ways as your father David did, do all that I ask you to do, and follow My laws and commands, ¹⁸then I will establish your royal throne and keep My covenant with your father David: “One of your descendants will always be a king of Israel.”

Just as the Eternal makes a covenant with David, so He will not remove David’s offspring from the Jerusalem throne, as long as David’s sons follow the Lord.

¹⁹If you and the Israelites ignore My ways and disregard My laws, if you serve other gods and worship them, ²⁰then I will remove you all from My land, the land I gave to you and your ancestors, and I will destroy this temple, which I have consecrated for My reputation, making it a proverb and a byword among the nations. ²¹Everyone who passes by this exalted temple will be astonished: “Why has the Eternal destroyed His land and His house?” ²²They will conclude, “He has done this because they abandoned the Eternal, the God of their fathers who brought them from the land of Egypt, and they served other gods and worshiped them. He is the One who has brought this evil upon them.”